Phips and Phipps Y Chromosome DNA Study

23 March 2005

A Phips and Phipps Y Chromosome DNA study has been established to determine the genetic connections, if any, between the English Phipps families and those of the United States and other former or current colonies of the United Kingdom.

Testing

In order to make these connections, we are looking for males with the Phipps surname, and all its variant spellings, to take a Y chromosome DNA test to see if their Y DNA signature matches other Phipps surnamed males.

You can test at either Family Tree DNA or at DNA Heritage. If testing at FTDNA use this page to join, and indicate that you are part of the Phipps DNA study to get a price discount. You can test on 12,
25, or 37 markers at FTDNA or on 25 or 43 markers at DNA Heritage. While 12 markers will give you some preliminary results, I recommend 25 markers as a minimum to allow us to differentiate families which may have identical 12 marker results. Mismatches at 37 or 43 markers are less from 25 marker matches than are mismatches at higher numbers of markers from 12 marker matches.

Phips and Phipps in England

The main Phips or Phipps family we are studying in England is that of the Earl of Mulgrave and the Marquess of Normanby.

Some Phips and Phipps families in British North America before 1700

James Phips of Maine, here in 1640, father of Sir William Phips, Governor of Maine;

Solomon Phipps of Cambridge, Mass. here by 1641;

Henry Phippes, married at St Mary's Co., MD 1677, granted land 1678;

John Phipps or Phyps, of James City Co., VA here in 1640. May be the John Phyps assigned land in Surry Co., VA in 1650 and 1656/7;

Edward Phipps of Northumberland Co., VA here by 1654.

Several of the families listed above are supposed to be related as follows:
Robert Phipps had two sons, Francis Phipps and William Phipps.
Francis Phipps had a son, Sir Contantine Phipps, b 1652, Reading, Berkshire, England.
William Phipps had a son, James Phips, who immigrated to Maine.
James Phips had a son Sir William Phipps, b 1646, Governor of Maine.

Joseph Phipps of Pennsylvania also was from Reading, Berkshire, England, in the same time period.

Current Results

We have results from descendants of Sir Constantine Phipps; a descendant of Joseph Phipps of Reading, Berkshire, England, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; an unknown Phipps; and from descendants of Solomon Phipps of Charlestown, Massachusetts. We need results from other descendants of these men to verify these signatures. In addition to these lines, we are looking for descendants of the family of James Phipps of Maine.

#xxxx1,Francis Phips, Esq.
Reading, Berkshire, Eng.

b. ~1600

13

23

14

10

10

11

12

12

12

14

13

30

17

9

10

11

11

25

15

19

30

15

15

17

17

11

11

19

23

16

15

19

15

36

37

12

12

#23323,Joseph Phipps
Reading, Berks, Eng to PA

b. ~1640

13

23

14

11

11

14

12

12

12

13

13

29

18

9

10

11

11

25

15

19

30

15

15

17

17

12

11

18

23

17

15

18

17

36

40

12

12

#30,299,Phipps

b. ~1640

13

22

14

10

11

15

12

12

11

14

13

30

Haplogroup G

#xxxx2,Solomon Phipps
Charlestown, Mass

b. ~1641

14

22

15

10

13

14

11

12

12

12

11

30

19

7

9

11

11

23

16

22

29

12

14

14

14

12

10

19

20

15

-

-

-

-

-

12

10

Analysis

We have four sequences, representing 6 participants. XXXX1 has two persons who match at 25 markers, and XXXX2 has two persons who match at 25 markers. So, four results are in HAPLOGROUP R1b which is consistent for an origin in the British Isles. Preleminary analysis says these lines are not related in a genealogically meaningful way. This would mean that the New England Phipps families and the Pennsylvania and Virginia Phipps families are not recently related. Until we have more results to verify these lines, we can not say much more than this.

The other two results are for Solomon Phipps of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and William Phipps of Nova Scotia. These are in Haplogroup G and are not related to the other lines. Two people from this line have tested and are a 37/37 match.

Preliminary results from a more recent study are reported
in this article from the BBC:
Nicola Cook,
"Viking Genetics Survey Results", reporting on a study
done by Prof.
David B. Goldstein at University College London. Once Dr
Goldstein's results are published, a link will be made to the
paper.

The following article is one of the more important
discussions of Y DNA: Semino, et.al., "The Genetic
Legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in Extant
Europeans: A Y chromosome Perspective", Science 2000, v 290,
p.1155 et. seq.